Birmingham solicitor, poet and playwright Ian Henery performed during the closing celebrations of the Blast!  Festival of Photography, Talks and Walks between 24th May - 29th June 2019. 

The Festival took place over 6 weeks shining a light on each of Sandwell`s 6 distinct towns: West Bromwich, Tipton, Rowley Regis, Oldbury, Smethwick and Wednesbury.  It was open to everyone and was free.    "It was a Blast!" said Ian Henery.  "The only thing missing was Birmingham. I thought "I`m not having that!  I am not having that at all!"  I metamorphosed into Liam Gallagher.     This project was  about pride of place and they had a caravan exploring the 6 towns of Sandwell.  What has Birmingham got?  Where`s our caravan?  So I thought "Right, here comes Birmingham.  I was loving it!"   The Blast! Festival was like no other festival because it was produced with and for local people.  The Festival invited outstanding photographers, artists and curators to showcase work, develop projects and collaborate with communities to present extraordinary stories about everyday life.  With exhibitions, film screenings, events, talks and walks, Blast! was presented on the streets, the Metro line, in shops, libraries and pubs, on historic buildings and in community halls.    "It didn't include Birmingham so I took Birmingham to them for a Blast!" explained Ian "and to Wednesbury Library on Friday 28th June after the drama students from Stagecoach Performing Arts had finished giving a preview of my latest play to Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands with the Birmingham Chinese Society and filmed by Birmingham Television.  Andy Street had got £80,000 from the National Lottery Community Fund for his Mayor`s Community Weekend  He needed to see what local people can do."

  After watching a preview of his play with the Mayor of the West Midlands, the Birmingham Chinese Society and corporate sponsors Xin Marketing and Red Moon Brewery from Birmingham Ian  headed for the closing ceremonies of the Blast!  Festival in Wednesbury.      Ian is currently working on a commission to empower recovering alcoholics and drug addicts through poetry and spoken word.   Ian sees engagement and participatory arts as the way forward.    A theme Ian Henery is using for his Addiction Recovery Workshops is Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.     "In these times of austerity and Government cut backs no one has any sympathy for the homeless or drug addicts" Ian argued.  "There are no votes attached to the homeless junkie asleep in a doorway surrounded by empty take-away food wrappers and vomit.  Article 2 is the right to life.  We are all addicts on a sliding scale of unhealthy habits and attachments holding our  lives together: food, bad relationships, drugs, alcohol, sex, money, love and fame.  We are all organic entities like trees with codes stored in our embryonic forms that are set to grow to completion.  A tree doesn`t face the kind of obstacles of  a highly socialised mammal.   It might get chopped down or pruned but it`s never going to need freedom from addiction."   Ian is on a mission to free addicts from their addictions with poetry and spoken word workshops.    "We call this process "recovery" because I am going to help addicts recover who they were meant to be or are capable of being ", he said "by calling up Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights.  It`s recovery of who we are all meant to be."